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Cherokee Homeowner Sued Over Flag Pole

Posted: 6:34 pm EDT March 12, 2009Updated: 7:34 am EDT March 13, 2009

Ron Tripodo said he spent about $900 installing a 14-foot flag pole outside his Cherokee County home, complete with landscaping and lighting, because he wasn't satisfied with the typical pole attached to the side of the house.


SLIDESHOW: Cherokee Homeowner Sued Over Flag Pole Violation

"I wanted to display my patriotism … and I wanted to do it in a way that I could keep the flag up all the time," said Tripodo.

While Tripodo says his next door neighbors were impressed, the Bridgemill subdivision homeowners association in Canton wasn’t too thrilled and ordered him to take it down.

"They say you're not allowed to have any structure outside the framework of the home," said Tripodo.


TOM REGAN: Cherokee Homeowner Sued Over Flag Pole Violation

Tripodo refused to remove the pole. Thursday, a sheriff's deputy served him with a lawsuit filed by the homeowners association.

"They're suing me for $25 a day in damages, plus attorney's fees," said Tripodo.

The irony is that as a member of the homeowners association, Tripodo is helping to pay the lawyers who filed the lawsuit.

"I don't think they're using the homeowners’ association money in a proper way," said Tripodo.

What’s more, Tripodo said that other homes in the area have outdoor structures that he alleges are technically in violation of the covenant.

Tripodo's lawyer, also his next neighbor, is defending him at no charge.

"We need to rally behind our country; we need to rally behind our troops. And to ask this man to put his flag in the back yard doesn't make any sense," said Daran Burns.

Tripodo said his neighbors vow to rally behind him as he fights the lawsuit demanding the removal of the flag pole. "I'm going to defend it all the way to the Supreme Court if I have to. That's our right as Americans…our forefathers shed their blood so that we could wave that flag," said Tripodo.

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